Bomber
pilot who defied death is now flying solo;
bittersweet Anzac march for hero of the skies.
reports
Joseph
Catanzaro
It was 1943 and the night sky of Milan in
northern Italy
was lit up like day with German searchlights and the constant flash of
anti-aircraft guns. Braving the
storm
of bullets and enemy fighter planes, a small squadron of Bomber
Pathfinders
descended on the nearby seaport of Genoa, determined to play their part
in
making sure supplies vital to the German army never arrived.
Armed with machineguns and flares, the squadron
was
given the task of marking and illuminating targets for the Allied
bombers
minutes behind them, a dangerous mission that required them to fly
perilously
close to enemy defences. Strapped in the cockpit of his battered
Halifax,
a German fighter with all guns blazing hot on his tail, then
18-year-old WA
flying officer Tom Scotland thought his number was up.
“My
eyes fixed on the stars,” he recalled. “There just seemed to be
something so
beautiful and ordered about them. I was in the midst of an air battle,
I had a
millisecond, and there they were.” With
the staccato cough of his guns and the roar of his engines in his ears,
Mr
Scotland deftly managed to escape into the night. It
was one of many close calls during his time
in the leaden skies of World War II Europe.
Raised on a dairy farm near Rockingham, Mr
Scotland
said he enlisted in August 1941, keen to do his part. “At that time,
England
was on her knees and I just thought I had to be in it,” he said.
Arriving in Bristol in 1943, Mr Scotland said
he was
quickly drafted into a new force being established to attack the
manufacturing
power of the Nazi war machine. “The
Pathfinders led the bombers,” he said. “We had to mark the route for
them with
lighted markers on the ground. We had to then face the flak and
searchlights
and fighters in the target areas.”
Now
85, Mr Scotland said he never expected to survive long enough to see
the war
out, with death never far away. “We
had
a big explosion under our plane over Genoa in Italy,” he said. “The
bottom was
badly damaged. The radar was knocked out and one of my motors was put
out of
action. When we got back, my boys found a big lump of shrapnel right
beneath my
seat. Fortunately, it didn’t go right through.”
Mr Scotland said a heartbreaking number of his
flying
friends weren’t so lucky. “We were at the forefront. It was costly.
Some nights
we’d lose three or four crews out of the squadron. Some of them would
get
captured as prisoners of war, but mainly the plane would explode and it
was
sudden death,” he said.
Mr Scotland still vividly recalls the loss of a
mate in
the skies over Germany. The elderly pilot said an attack on an enemy
fighter
base late in the war ended in tragedy with the death of fellow pilot Bill
Nuebeck, from Lithgow in NSW. “He’s just a name on a panel of
remembrance now,”
he said.
Today, the veteran of 62 missions will be the
only WA
Pathfinder marching. Of about 35 men from WA to take to the European
skies, he
is the last man standing. “There are two other fellows, but they’re not
well
and not able to march,” he said. Not
that the old Anzac, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his
bravery,
will be marching alone. “A lot of the grandkids will march with me,” he
said.
But while Mr Scotland said it warmed his heart
to see
the younger generations honouring their forebears, this year’s march
would be
bittersweet. “I miss my mates, I miss them. It’s bad, you’ve got 30
fellows
you’ve been marching with, and now they’re gone,” he said.
Lifespan:
World War II Pathfinder pilot Tom Scotland, 85, and as he was at 21 in
his trail-blazing
aircraft.
Picture:
Rod Taylor
©
Tom Scotland
DFC
Email: us
PO Box 6142
South
Bunbury, WA
Australia
6230
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Publication: The West Australian; |
Date:Apr
25, 2008; |
Section:News;
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Page Number:6 |
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